MP Kajendran wants politicians kept out of vaccination programmes

By Dinasena Ratugamage

Health officials should be entrusted with the vaccination process in the Northern Province, Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) MP Selvarajah Kajendran said. The MP said some politicians meddled with the anti – COVID-19 campaigns in the North.

“If the process had not been politicised fewer people would have died,” the MP told journalists when he arrived at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital to observe Jaffna residents being vaccinated.

The MP said that when Sri Lanka received the AstraZeneca vaccine, politicians decided who should get the jab.

“As a result only people in Colombo got the vaccine. Now only the people in other parts of the country are being inoculated. We are getting the vaccine from China and health officials must be allowed to decide what to do. If you look at Jaffna, Ministers Namal Rajapaksa, Douglas Devananda and MP Angajan Ramanathan claim that they were instrumental in having the Jaffna people vaccinated. I think they must be doing so in other parts of the country as well.

The MP said that the role of the politician was to provide necessary facilities and equipment to the health officials.

On 02 June 152 COVID-19 cases were reported from Jaffna District. About 3,754 cases had been reported since 04 October 2020, he said.

Meanwhile, Regional Director of Health – Northern Province, K. Kethiswaran said yesterday that the vaccination programme in the Jaffna District had been a success with the administering of the 50,000 doses allocated to the District successfully.

Dr. Kethiswaran said that they were assisted by security forces, health staff, the police and the people and there were no allegations of irregularities.

“Those involved in the vaccination programme worked until 8 pm almost every day,” he said.

Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University Prof. S. Satkuunaraja was given the first jab from the 1,600 doses allocated for the inoculation of the university staff on Wednesday June 02.

Prof. Satkunaraja had earlier asked President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to give priority to the Jaffna university in the vaccination drive as a lecturer had died from COVID-19 and 28 staff members and a large number of students were infected.